Caring is a two-way street for UI basketball

In Don Verlin’s salutatory as the newest in what’s become an increasingly disposable line of basketball coaches at the University of Idaho, he had one intriguing request directed at people at the periphery of the program – students, donors, even the media.

“We need you to care,” Verlin pleaded.

His heart may be in the right place, but the thinking is backward.

Coach, Idaho needs to make us care.

Presumably, Verlin already does. We have yet to come across a college coach without a burning interest in the brutal bottom line of the won-lost record. Some have been known to fudge on academic and citizenship issues, but in the modern style Verlin talks a good game on those fronts, too.

With a long tenure as an assistant to Stew Morrill at Utah State, there is evidence of those devotions having rubbed off on Verlin, enough so that he shouldn’t be suspect on commitment.

The university, well, that’s another matter.

It used to be taken on faith that Idaho was doomed to be a stepping-stone school in the coachly arts, a place for a Hot Young Guy to polish his portfolio and giddyap to the greener side.

But in the last 30 years, the school has had four basketball coaches leave on their own in search of the Big Chance – one of them, Kermit Davis, doing it twice, which is why he’ll always share a special wing in the Vandals Hall of Fame with Dennis Erickson.

Meanwhile, the school has fired six others.

It’s a merciless river if you lose your footing on one of those stepping stones.

The most recent drowning was particularly cold, George Pfeifer getting all of two seasons – actually, more like a season and a half – to conjure up some magic. The pink slip arrived a week ago; athletic director Rob Spear had his replacement in pocket two days later. If you’re generous, give Spear points for being a man who knows his mind.

On the other hand, about now is when the bellyaching over how Dennis done the Vandals wrong needs to stop, forever.

Spear was prominent among those who felt betrayed by Erickson for taking the first train out of Moscow after just a season on the football job. How the boss kept from blushing when he dumped Pfeifer almost as quickly might make a good chapter in a textbook for CEOs.

Not that Pfeifer inspired great confidence. He did manage to double the win total this season to eight, but the roster churn has been epic – more than a dozen players in the last two years leaving before the end of their eligibility.

Still, it isn’t hard to be persuaded that Pfeifer heard the clock ticking immediately upon his hiring, and desperation can make for rash measures.

What makes the circumstances even knottier is that Verlin was a finalist for this job two years ago but withdrew, leading Spear to settle on – OK, settle for – Pfeifer.

Apparently, resources and commitment were the sticking points for Verlin then, including salaries for assistants and playing no-return road games for a paycheck. The Vandals have booked a pair of those each of the past two years – at Gonzaga and at a Pac-10 school – which doesn’t exactly make them Coppin State, living out of a suitcase.

Verlin was more receptive this time, so compromises must have been made. Which, as it always does in cases like this, makes one wonder if similar help and accommodations were accorded the fired coach – and if not, why not?

Verlin may have unwittingly answered that question Monday.

“Rob said something to me – and he may not remember saying it – but he said, ‘Don, I believe in you,’ ” Verlin recalled.

Hard to imagine there was much institutional belief in the last guy, promoted as he was from the staff of a 4-25 team when the UI search unraveled after Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice turned down the job – and given a whopping three-year contract. Indeed, the impression at the time was that Pfeifer was a hire Spear had to be talked into.

That suggests the past two years have been a pointless exercise, that the UI administration was not willing to make enough of an investment then – that it didn’t care enough – to get the coach it truly wanted. If a change at this point was the proper business decision, then who gets the noogies for the previous whiff? Besides George Pfeifer, of course.

And how does this episode persuade Don Verlin, should he succeed, to not flee at the first attractive opportunity?

Typically, Verlin claimed not to be chilled – on the record, anyway.

“I have a lot of trust in the man,” he said of Spear. “I’m a person who gets a good feeling for a person and goes with it. I have a lot of confidence – and he signed me to a five-year contract, so that’s a good deal.”

Compared to the deal the previous guy got, it’s great.